Miss and Master Munky both phoned to say they were sorry they hadn't sent cards but Master M and his lady wife will take us out for dinner soon. Miss Munky can't do that quite so easily, what with being in South Africa and all, like.

Little Miss Umpire and her two twin sisters gave me five (FIVE!) C P Snow novels in the Strangers and Brothers sequence. I love those books - they make great thoughtful reading - and I'm now looking forward to Christmas, when I can expect - at the very least - "The Corridors of Power", which is the next one in the series.

Altogether a wonderful Father's Day, an American (I think) invention which I don't remember being around when I was a kid. But I could be wrong.

Well, if it is a day for all fathers, it should be 'Fathers' Day'. If it is a day for only this father, it should be 'Father's Day'. I would have thought it was the former but my card says 'Happy Father's Day'.

Perhaps, like wot with the split infinitive, it is time to let the apostrophe go...I know Lynne Truss wouldn't like it but I fear her book on the topic got on my tits and I had to stop reading it.